“Now let’s transfer to another place for the activity. Let’s go to the opposite office building.” Zhan Huixin pointed to the outside of the window, then she went out first.
Only when she got to the door Jiang Youyou realized that she had left her umbrella in the taxi. It was already the one hundred ninetieth umbrella Jiang Youyou had lost since she was born.
Xu Nuo held her by the shoulder, “Let’s go together. I’ve brought an umbrella with me.”
Jiang Youyou was grateful. Otherwise, she would be wet all over like a drowned rat in such a heavy rain when going to the opposite building, like those in front of her who didn’t have umbrellas.
Zhao Huixin was waiting at the gate. She only said, “Those can come in who shared the umbrellas with others just now. Those who came here alone with an umbrella or those got wet alone in the rain can go back home. Thank you for your understanding. We prefer those who can cooperate with colleagues but not those who just care about themselves or those who can’t cooperate with other people actively.”
However, to Jiang Youyou’s surprise, this time only fourteen of them could sit in the office. One woman entered. The outfit she wore was of high-grade. She came in with a somewhat strong smell of perfume, a somewhat domineering temperament, an almost perfectly fixed short haircut, a proper business suit and a pair of sharp eyes. Zhao Huixin introduced her as the assistant of general manager of the company, Huang Yu.
Huang Yu went up to Xu Nuo, looking at her with her head askew, “You came to the interview in a newly released Chanel Tartan suit, I’m afraid our company can’t afford to pay your salary.” She said.
Xu Nuo stood up, a bit nervous, “I just came back from France and my mother suggested that I should wear this new suit of hers to the interview. She said a discerning boss would appreciate such clothes.”
Huang Yu nodded, beckoning her to sit down.
Jiang Youyou was a little afraid of this woman, so she lowered her head, pretending to be thinking. But she still stopped in front of her. “Your clothes and shoes are quite new, but my suggestion is that a girl like you, not old enough and not rich enough, don’t wear such brand as Ports. I hate this brand.”
Her voice became a little harsh when she said this. “If you come to work in our company, put these clothes of fake brands away. I prefer you to go to find a tailor’s shop in the street and have him make you a well-fitting suit-dress without any logo. No one would buy any Chinese brands so they began cheating people by changing a foreign name for Chinese products so that they could be sold at a high price. I had never seen a Ports shop in Europe, one or two of this brand can only be found in Toronto. Did you think you owned a famous international brand like this girl when you bought this?”
Jiang Youyou flushed instantly. The dress cost her a splendid sum of three thousand and eight hundred yuan but was thus criticized as a good-for-nothing, and she couldn’t wear it in the company from now on, what a shame!
Luckily she then went to another girl to criticize her skirt for being so thin and tight that after being caught in the rain, she looked as if she were going to make a movie unsuitable for children
There was a tense atmosphere. The interview of this round was oral English test. Everyone should answer Huang Yu’s questions in English.
“Why did you leave your last job? Alice?” Huang Yu asked Xu Nuo.
“Well, I am hoping to get an offer of a better position. If opportunity knocks, I will take it.” Xu Nuo could speak pure and fluent English.
When it was Jiang Youyou’s turn, she was a little nervous. She escaped from most of English classes for a part-time job as a tutor during her college years, so she stuttered a little when she answered the questions.
“From now on you are divided into teams of seven, in thirty seconds.” Huang Yu spoke in a non-negotiable tone.
To each team seven data sheets and bottles were distributed, then some glass beads of various colors.
Huang Yu said, “The team that can accomplish the tasks in half an hour by picking the fifty-three wrong data out in the seven data sheets and then filling the seven bottles with glass beads of different colors will be the winner. And the winning group will pass the test and the losers will be eliminated.”
Jiang Youyou was really eager to be in the same team with Xu Nuo. She thought the girl would bring her good luck.
So it was true enough. Once they were not in the same team, Jiang Youyou had a premonition. The data in those dense excel tables seemed all correct to her because she was really too poor at math. She hurriedly said to the rest six girls, “Who are good at math? Please do the task to pick wrong data out in the tables and the rest of us who do not do well in math come to sort the glass beads.”
Time went by minutes and seconds. A rainbow could be seen in the sky after the rain. Jiang Youyou ceased a while to stare at the rainbow in a dazz. “How beautiful it is.”
Xu Nuo made an encouraging gesture of support to Jiang Youyou. The two smiled at each other.
Half an hour had passed. Zhao Huixin and Huang Yu came in to check the result. Neither team had accomplished successfully. Xu Nuo’s team had sorted all the glass beads into the bottles according to their colors but failed to check out all wrong data by finishing only thirty of them. In Jiang Youyou’s team, they sorted all the wrong data out, but there were a few glass beads of azure color mingled with the teal ones.
“Neither team has accomplished the task.” Huang Yu remarked with much disappointment. “But I’ll give you one more opportunity-you can discuss and select one who will be responsible for the fault and eliminate her so that the rest of you will take part in the last round of the interview. Otherwise, all candidates will be eliminated. I can tell you the last subject: talking about your impression of South Korea or Japan and the historical origins between either of the two countries and China.”
This was really a quite simple topic.
After tortures of several rounds of tests in the interview, Jiang Youyou already got dizzy and light-headed. She stood up slowly and said, “I’m sorry, it’s my fault. I decide to quit.”
Xu Nuo pulled her by the hand, “Don’t do that, sit down first.”
Huang Yu nodded and said, “Please exit.”
Jiang Youyou shook her head. She looked at one girl behind Xu Nuo who was speaking fluently about her own stories when travelling in Japan and Korea. There was a gloating expression on her face.
She thought Jiang Youyou was certainly a stupid girl.
The one who considered others stupid was surely not far away from becoming a stupid person.
Jiang Youyou was waiting for a taxi in front of the company’s gate. Wasting a whole afternoon in this wretched place to get nothing, it was not her lucky day today, wasn’t it?
It was the rush hour and Jiang Youyou was going to the suburbs, and many taxi drivers refused to take her and the excuses they invented were all that they had to hand over to the next shift so they couldn’t go that far.
When she had waited for half an hour, a dozen of girls went out delightedly after the interview, speaking and laughing. They saw Jiang Youyou standing at the gate but no one would greet her.
Xu Nuo was an exception..
“Take my car back,” Xu Nuo waved the key of the car in her hand. Her car was a Beetle Cabriolet. The yellow car gleamed with pearly sheen, as if it were covered with a soft and warm plate of golden flame in the setting sun.
Jiang Youyou had seen this kind of car only in QQ Parking game.